


(Super)Power of Deduction

by mrs_berry



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste Knows, Detective Work, F/M, Rabbit Alix Kubdel | Bunnyx, Season 3 Spoilers, adrien figures out the identity of two heroes, adrien has more than one brain cell, alya goofed by throwing out a gum wrapper before class, by the way PapaBleu is a brand I made up and I doubt it exists, deductive skills, inspired by a tumblr post, partial reveal, references to several episodes, silly alya
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-20
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 05:27:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22818490
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrs_berry/pseuds/mrs_berry
Summary: Alya threw away a strawberry gum wrapper before class.But this wasn't just any strawberry gum wrapper; it was the discontinued PapaBleu's brand.Adrien gasped, as he came to the legitimate conclusion that Alya is Rena Rouge and...Holy shit, Marinette is Ladybug.(Inspired bythis Tumblr post.)
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 37
Kudos: 305





	(Super)Power of Deduction

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [a ML prompt on Tumblr](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/561076) by amiraculousplatypus. 



> Saw a post on Tumblr by [amiraculousplatypus](https://amiraculousplatypus.tumblr.com/) and decided to give it a go. Let me know what you think!
> 
> (To those who read Phone Call History, I am hoping to update it this weekend!)

Yesterday's Akuma had the heroes reeling. They had to call out all of their allies and use an even more complicated plan than usual.

The plan was courtesy of Ladybug, of course.

It involved multiple objects, fabrics, and each superhero had a role to play.

By the end of the night, the team was exhausted. No one had dealt with such a stubborn and annoying Akuma before.

It wasn't until Ladybug's second Lucky Charm gave her a pack of PapaBleu's gum that the whole situation was quickly resolved.

Apparently the kid had wanted that gum, but his parents had been unable to give it to him. So, as kids do, he threw a tantrum and then started saying he hated everyone and wouldn't explain why he was so upset.

Thankfully, the heroes had finally gotten the gist of the issue and that was when the item they needed had fallen into Ladybug's gloved hands.

Of course, she gave the boy the gum, only to break his enchanted object and purify the little black butterfly that emerged. She then yanked the gum out of the poor kid's hands (he wasn't going to remember this anyway) and called for the Miraculous cure.

It was late, past the kid's bedtime, and most of Paris was asleep by the time they had finished their battle.

Ladybug thanked everyone and sent them on their way.

Chat Noir and Rena Rouge had lingered after Ladybug left.

The two heroes chatted for a bit and Rena complained about wanting the gum herself after the headache Hawk Moth had put them through.

"Apparently, my best friend has a stash of that gum since she's obsessed. I want some so badly, but I can't go bother her right now. She's probably asleep."

Chat hadn't actually heard of it before and was curious about it, but not curious enough to do anything about it (especially not wake his sleeping friend), so he just patiently listened to her complaining as he waited for his Lady to return.

After some time, Ladybug finally landed on the roof they were on as their conversation began to dwindle.

"So, ready to go home, Rena?" she asked, looking just as exhausted as everyone else.

"Yeah. Hey, you wouldn't happen to actually have some of that gum, would you? I've been _craving_ it ever since that fight. Especially since it's that time of the month."

Despite her fatigue, Ladybug gave her a sympathetic smile. "Sure, I have a whole stash of it at home. I can go get you some and then drop it off with you when I come to pick up your Miraculous. I'll meet you at your place, okay?"

"You're totally awesome! Thanks a ton, LB," she replied. "See you later, CN."

"Bye, Rena and M'Lady," he said, giving a two-finger salute.

"Bye, kitty," Ladybug waved and the two female heroes departed.

Chat Noir took that opportunity to head home himself.

* * *

Alya had gotten her hands on a very strange item, which really didn't make a lick of sense.

Seeing as only the heroes who were present in last night's battle even knew about the gum (the Ladyblogger hadn't been there, Nadja Chamack must have been sick or something, and the other reporters sucked at getting near the action), this was just too much of a coincidence.

So, what could it mean?

Well, the obvious answer was that Alya was Ladybug.

But that made zero sense, seeing as Alya was frequently filming Ladybug and he had seen the two standing side-by-side too many times to count.

Unless that was an illusion created by Rena Rouge.

That was certainly plausible.

But what would be the point of it? That would mean Rena was hiding in the shadows to create an illusion of Alya (who, in this scenario, is Ladybug) next to Ladybug ("herself"). The purpose would likely be to conceal her identity and make others think there was no way Alya is Ladybug.

Just like he had asked Wayhem to trick others into thinking he was Adrien while the real Adrien was being Chat Noir.

It was certainly a good trick.

But wait, if this was the case, couldn't he have been tricked by Hawk Moth or even Multimouse?

He had remembered thinking Marinette was Ladybug for a bit, but then Multimouse had revealed herself to be Marinette right as she was standing next to Ladybug...

And Marinette had a ton of Miraculous with her during the fight with Kwamibuster.

This meant that Marinette could be Ladybug and performed a very convoluted trick to hide her secret identity.

But then again, Alya was the one with the gum wrapper.

_Wait, Alya was the one with the gum wrapper!_

Rena Rouge was the one who was craving the gum last night, not Ladybug.

Ladybug had given Rena Rouge gum.

Alya was eating said gum.

Alya was, therefore, Rena Rouge!

This made perfect sense.

And Alya said her best friend had a stash of this gum. Marinette is Alya's best friend.

Ladybug also happened to have a stash of this gum. Which was very coincidental. After a quick Google search, Adrien discovered the gum had been discontinued a year ago.

A whole year!

So either it was a coincidence that two girls still had gum that was discontinued a year ago or there was a connection.

Adrien was positive it was the latter.

Still, he couldn't rule it out yet. This meant that Marinette was one of the following:

  1. Ladybug!!!!
  2. A friend or relative of Ladybug's.
  3. Another avid fan of PapaBleu's.



But going back to the facts, Adrien knew Alya was Rena Rouge.

Ladybug had picked Rena—Alya—as the first new person to add to their superhero team.

Ladybug wouldn't pick a random person. She had to have picked someone she trusted.

Who could you trust more than your close friends? A family member.

So Ladybug either was good friends with or related to Alya.

This meant that Ladybug could be:

  1. Alya's mom.
  2. One of Alya's sisters.
  3. One of Alya's relatives.
  4. One of Alya's friends.



There was no way Ladybug was old enough to be a mom, so number one couldn't be true.

If Ladybug was one of Alya's sisters, then Ladybug wouldn't have had to go home to grab the gum, because they lived together, so number two could be scratched off.

Number three was a little more difficult to cross off as a possibility. Ladybug really could be a relative of Alya's...

 _But wait_ , Ladybug couldn't be Alya's relative.

Adrien had been picked as a temporary hero. Adrien didn't know any of Alya's relatives. If Ladybug only picked people she trusted, she had to have known Adrien well enough outside of the mask (surely their limited interaction as Adrien and Ladybug couldn't be enough for her to fully trust him).

Therefore, Ladybug had to be a friend of Alya's. And a friend of himself.

Alya's best friend is Marinette.

Alya is also friends with Rose, Juleka, Mylene.

Adrien pushed together all his brain cells to decipher why none of them could be Ladybug.

He slapped himself when he came to the simple realization.

Alya, Rose, Juleka, Mylene: all four of them had been Akumatized (Lady WiFi, Princess Fragrance, Refleckta, Horrificator) and Ladybug had been there to purify them.

Alya is also friends with (and dating) Nino, but Adrien was fairly certain Ladybug was a cis female. And she said there was a boy she liked, and Alya wasn't a boy.

Even if Ladybug somehow wasn't a girl, Nino had also been Akumatized by Hawk Moth as the Bubbler and purified by Ladybug.

There was only friend of Alya's (and his) who had not been Akumatized.

His short friend who had medium length black hair (with a blue sheen) pulled into pigtails, bluebell eyes, and had a stash of PapaBleu gum.

His friend who lead as class president, who creatively came up with designs, who was sometimes madly clumsy.

His friend who was clever, caring, hated liars, and was always ready to help anyone in need.

Adrien stared at the trash can, where Alya had thrown out her strawberry gum wrapper. He apprehensively went to it, bent over, and pulled out the wrapper to see if his eyes had been playing tricks on him.

_PapaBleu... sacré bleu... Ladybug is Marinette!_

**Bonus:**

His head whipped up as Bunnyx stepped out of a portal.

"Really? You figured it out with a gum wrapper this time?" Bunnyx groaned as she facepalmed. "Last time at least made some sense. You found her tube of lip gloss."

"What?" Adrien asked, baffled. "What's going on?"

"C'mon, Detective Sunshine. Just give your mad deductive skills a rest already, would you? No normal person discovers Ladybug's identity by finding a smelly sock."

Adrien furrowed his brow in total confusion.

"Sorry, CN, but you're coming with me."

And with that, Bunnyx dragged an unwilling and confused Adrien Agreste into her portal to fix this mess once again.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this on the fly without much editing. But hopefully it's not too all over the place and is actually quite logical.
> 
> Also, if you liked this, you might enjoy [Speculation](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21009713). Adrien has some deduction skills in that fic as well!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed! Please leave a comment to let me know what you think of this brainiac Adrien! ❤


End file.
